Airing ten years after the 1986 reboot of the Superman comic book character, the animated series paid tribute to both the classic Superman of old and the newer "modern" Superman.

One change to Superman's origin is that the evil computer Brainiac was not only now from Krypton, but was portrayed as responsible for preventing the knowledge of Krypton's imminent destruction from reaching its people so as to save himself rather than be committed in the presumably futile task of saving the population of the planet.

In addition, the ship that carried the infant Kal-El to Earth was designed to have a pilot, and the autopilot used instead was programmed to land smoothly upon reaching its destination. This means that ship is in perfect working condition during Superman's adulthood and is used as his mode of long range transportation in space.

While the series featured adaptations of much of Superman's rogues gallery, the series' writers supplemented the supply of enemies by paying tribute to Jack Kirby's Fourth World creations which also introduced the villain Darkseid to the series as one of Superman's greatest enemies.